The members of the association spend their personal time to take care of stray cat shelters. (image: Jeonju Stray Cat Protection Association)
JEONJU, Jan. 4 (Korea Bizwire) — A group of so-called ‘cat moms’ in the southwestern city of Jeonju are teaming up to improve public awareness of stray cats.
Cat moms refer to those who spend their own time and money to provide food for stray cats.
With only about 30 members, the Jeonju Stray Cat Protection Association does not even have an official office. Nonetheless, its impact on stray cats is not small.
The members of the association spend their personal time to take care of the two ‘stray cat feeding shelters’ installed by the city government.
Their volunteer activities go further than that. They also take care of the stray cats in their respective neighborhoods.
After buying cat food at their own expense, they drop by the stray cat feeding stations installed in their respective neighborhoods on the way to or from work or during strolls.
Despite the financial burden of buying cat food at their own expenses, they cannot stop since stray cats would quickly starve without a source of food.
(image: Jeonju Stray Cat Protection Association)
The cat moms also runs a trap-neuter-return (TNR) program. TNR is an indispensable measure to manage the overall number of stray cats and to ensure co-existence between humans and stray cats.
The cat moms receive a TNR subsidy of 150,000 to 200,000 won (US$137-183) per cat from the city government.
Given the large number of stray cats, however, the city government’s budget lags far behind. There are some cases where pay for TNR procedures themselves.
What makes their job harder is some people’s bias about cat moms and stray cats. Some complain that feeding stray cats attract more stray cats from other areas, making the alleys dirty, while some others say that they hate the crying sound of stray cats.
“Stray cats bite garbage bags or cry simply because of hunger. If people provide food to stray cats, they would not cry,” said Yoo Soo-kyung, head of the association.
J. S. Shin (js_shin@koreabizwire.com)
